Brazil In 'humanitarian Catastrophe' Due To Covid: MSF

Rio de Janeiro, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Apr, 2021 ) :Brazil's "failed" response to Covid-19 has driven the country to a "humanitarian catastrophe," Doctors Without Borders said Thursday, accusing President Jair Bolsonaro's government of making the health crisis even worse.

"The lack of political will to adequately respond to the pandemic is killing Brazilians in their thousands," the humanitarian group said in a statement.

The statement underlined the deadly surge of Covid-19 that has made Brazil the current epicenter of the pandemic.

Last week, the country of 212 million people accounted for 11 percent of infections and 26.2 percent of deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, the group said.

In all, the disease has claimed more than 360,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States.

"These staggering figures are clear evidence of the authorities' failure to manage the health and humanitarian crises in the country and protect Brazilians, especially the most vulnerable," it said.

Bolsonaro has long downplayed the pandemic and defied expert advice on measures to contain it, leaving state and local authorities to implement a messy patchwork of response measures.

Doctors Without Borders said the lack of an "effective, centralized and coordinated" response was exacerbating the crisis.

"Public health measures have become a political battlefield in Brazil," said Christos Christou, president of the group, which is sometimes referred to with its French acronym MSF.

"As a result, science-based policies are associated with political opinions, rather than the need to protect individuals and their communities." The statement came two days after the Brazilian Senate launched an investigative committee into Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic.

Doctors Without Borders condemned the lack of masks and social distancing in Brazil, which have been "shunned and politicized" even as Bolsonaro and his allies tout medications such as anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, despite studies documenting their ineffectiveness against Covid-19.

"Fuelling sickness and death in Brazil is the overwhelming amount of disinformation," it said.

It also condemned the country's "half-speed" vaccination campaign.

The organization, which has operated in Brazil since 1991, has deployed medical teams in eight of Brazil's 27 states to respond to the pandemic.